Impact of maintenance management procedures on energy efficiency of chillers

Abstract

The most important element of the central air conditioning system, the chiller, accounts for about 40% of annual total energy consumption of commercial and industrial buildings. As a result, many approaches have been proposed to increase energy efficiency of chillers with the intention of managing the annual total energy consumption of facilities. Among them, it was revealed that the approach of proper chiller maintenance procedures lead towards the energy efficiency of chillers. Therefore, the research was focused on identifying the impact of maintenance management procedures on energy efficiency of chillers. The data was collected through a pilot survey and a main survey which were followed by a questionnaire along with observations and interviews with experienced industry practitioners. It was identified that the maintenance procedures has a great impact towards the energy efficiency of chillers. Perform condenser water quality test, Monitoring refrigerant pressure and temperature, Monitoring water flows, cleaning of condenser bundle and cooling tower cleaning and water treatment were identified as the most significant maintenance activities which assist to meet the standard energy efficiency level of chillers. Eventually, a multiple linear regression model was developed with the intention of deriving relationship between performance deviation of above maintenance activities and energy efficiency drop of chillers.